Liverpool v Manchester City Team News

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain is pushing for inclusion in Sunday’s crucial clash with Manchester City, but it would be a huge call for Jurgen Klopp.

The temptation to switch his team around won’t be hard to resist for Klopp, despite Oxlade-Chamberlain hitting four goals in his last four games, because of the Reds’ 28-game unbeaten streak.

Fabinho, Georgino Wijnaldum and Jordan Henderson has been the manager’s preferred three this season and there is no reason to suspect they won’t be the ones he trusts to start the biggest game of the season so far.

Oxlade-Chamberlain’s form has been a huge boost and he finally looks like the player he was before he spent over a year out injured with a knee problem, but he acknowledges that it is tough to break in at the moment.

“I take the Tottenham game, the way that Gini [Wijnaldum], Hendo [Jordan Henderson] and Fab [Fabinho] did it in that game was brilliant and even the boys up front as well were second to none,” Oxlade-Chamberlain said. “So you look at that and they’re the sort of standards that we set for that.”

Ex-City star James Milner is also likely to be left on the bench with Andy Robertson returning to left-back duty after his midweek rest from the starting line-up.

Klopp, who confirmed that skipper Henderson has recovered from the illness that ruled him out of Tuesday’s Champions League win over Racing Genk, said Liverpool will be without just three players.

“Jordan is completely fine,” he said. “Joel [Matip] is still out, like Shaq [Xherdan Shaqiri] and like Clyney. That’s it, probably.”

Dejan Lovren is expected to win the nod over Joe Gomez to play alongside Virgil van Dijk at the heart of Liverpool’s defence.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has ruled first-choice goalkeeper Ederson out of the Anfield clash because of a muscle problem he picked up against Atalanta on Wednesday.

“We have another keeper,” said the Spaniard. “Claudio Bravo and he can do it, too. I have every confidence in him.”

Guardiola did not offer any updates on the fitness of David Silva or Rodri during his Friday press conference, but Aymeric Laporte, Oleksandr Zinchenko and Leroy Sane are not in any shape to feature this year.

This article originated on sportinastorm.com

Simon Barlow has a wealth of journalism experience and in-depth knowledge in a number of sports. As well as his extensive football knowledge, Simon is also well versed on cricket, tennis, American Football and cycling amongst others.